Pg-#2-
Where is that elusive gay gene?
Researchers have been working hard to establish a genetic link for homosexual behaviour. And, in fact, at one point the media was proclaiming that one had been found. They took a study on genetic linkage, blew it all out of proportion, added a touch of distortion and then presented it as fact.
The problem lies here...
The media became strangely silent, for the most part, when the research was debunked. One "Gay gene" researcher, Dr. Hamer, (a gay man himself), states, "It is the same for every human behavior -- environment matters for extroversion, smoking cigarettes, just about everything you can name." (Boston Globe, Feb 7, 1999). Basically what he and other researchers are saying is that homosexuality is influenced greatly by environment.
The 1993, politically motivated research that suggested a link between genes and queens is without legitimacy: "Six years later, however, the gene still has not been found and interest in--and enthusiasm for--the 'gay gene' research has waned among activists and scientists alike. And there is a growing consensus that sexual orientation is much more complicated than a matter of genes." (Boston Globe, Feb 7, 1999). The same article goes on to quote Ruth Hubbard, a board member of the Council for Responsible Genetics, and the author of Exploding the Gene Myth, who states that searching for a 'gay gene' , "is not even a worthwhile pursuit... Let me be clear: I don't think there is any single gene that governs any complex human behavior. There are genetic components to everything we do, and it is foolish to say genes are not involved, but I don't think they are decisive."